Saturday, January 31, 2015

Gov. Jeb Bush, facing published reports about infidelity as he ponders re-election, dismissed rumors today of an extramarital affair with an agency head as an "outright lie" ...

...For months, talk in Tallahassee bars and state offices and Internet Web pages linked Bush with Cynthia Henderson, secretary of the Department of Management Services. Today's comment was his first public response to the rumors. On Thursday, a columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat reported about a rumor of an affair involving two high-ranking public officials but did not identify them. Over the weekend, two other papers — the St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel — wrote about the rumors involving Bush and Henderson and said Bush had denied them...

...Bush originally appointed Henderson to head the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in January 1999. During her first year on the job, she faced questions about her ethics in running the agency on several occasions. Last September, Bush transferred Henderson to the Department of Management Services, a lower profile agency that oversees state facilities and insurance and retirement programs for state employees. Bush at that time said the criticism of Henderson was unjustified and had nothing to do with his decision.

Well, the 87th Annual Academy Awards nominees have been announced, and needless to say, the hate-filled bigots that make up the entertainment industry have set race relations in America back – well, at least ten years, but more likely centuries. Not since 2000 have the slate of prestige nominations – Best Actor and Actress, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress -- been all white. To paraphrase that great American Thinker, Joe Biden, it’s like the toxic limousine liberals in the Hollywood Hills want to put black Americans back in chains.

But not if Al Sharpton has anything to say about it—and don’t you worry, he does. “The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets,” said the famed racial extortionist—I mean, the famed Civil Right Champion. And these words aren’t as empty as the air up there in the snow-white Racist Rocky Mountains, either – they are backed with action! Action in the form of the emergency mobilization – yes, dammit, an EMERGENCY meeting – of Reverend Al’s eight-member diversity task force. If you want to know how all eight people can be assembled so quickly, just step out onto your balcony at night and look for the brilliant searchlight projecting a giant dollar sign up onto the clouds.

Sharpton has called upon Sony Pictures honcho Amy Pascal to address the Diversity problem in Hollywood – true, a black-themed movie, Twelve Years a Slave, won Best Picture and black actress Lupita Nyong'o won Best Supporting Actress – but that was LAST year. The struggle continues. Without question, Sony and others will show their commitment to diversity with a significant donation to Sharpton’s shady coffers. That’s how Racial Racket Ball works.

That Al Sharpton is a race-baiting fraud is self-evident: long before championing the myth of Gentle Giant Michael Brown in Ferguson for personal financial and political gain, he championed the myth of racial hate crime False Witness Tawana Brawley. When it comes to Reverend Al Sharpton, The Truth goes into the same slush fund as his millions of dollars of unpaid taxes. But Al Sharpton didn’t invent Racial Racket Ball: that honor belongs to Jesse Jackson.

In the heady early days of WWII, fear of an enemy air attack on both East and West coasts was overwhelming. The U.S. government's response was to mobilize tens of thousands of civilian volunteers into an early warning system capable of discerning the number, type, and direction of any enemy aircraft formation over U.S. soil. The volunteers were given silhouettes of both enemy and American aircraft to study and commit to memory. In this way, individuals who could not tell the difference between a Mitsubishi and a Messerschmitt, were taught how to discern the differences between the two. The government also printed and distributed handbooks on both German and Japanese military forces, which detailed not only the uniforms and insignia of the enemy, but their motivation and psychology as well. This was very important, for as any first year cadet at West Point will tell you; enemy recognition is a vital component in the ability to wage war.

Fast forward almost 75 years. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama acknowledged that one of his primary functions was to protect the American homeland and its people from attack. This was the correct thing to say, yet his administration seems to be going about it in a very ambivalent manner; using political correct terminology to re-define the war on terror.

Instead of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is now an "overseas contingency operation."

Major Hassan's rampage at Fort Hood is now classified as "workplace violence," and Islamic Jihadists are not terrorists at all, but "violent extremists." This latter interpretation places ALL acts of Islamic terrorism in the same category as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh; completely ignoring present day realities as they actually exist.

QOTD: "In a newly unsealed, Dec. 1, 2014, court ruling that legal experts said was highly unusual, Allegra accused seven Justice Department lawyers of "fraud upon the court, banned them from making any further filings in the case and took the unusual step of directly notifying Attorney General Eric Holder.

“In 40 years of legal practice, government and private, I've never seen that done,” said David Hardy, a constitutional law expert who formerly worked in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office.

Allegra said the government attorneys may have intimidated a witness and charged that seven of them may have kept illegal behavior secret from the court." -- William La Jeunesse, Maxim Lott

IMMIGRATION FRAUD?: The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles is working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate possible benefits fraud by out-of-state illegals.

A tight-lipped investigation into fraudulent driver’s license applications from out-of-state illegals is producing conflicting details as political pressure mounts from migrant rights groups.

On Tuesday, Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Robert Ide told the House Transportation Committee the department uncovered 144 fraudulent applications for the state’s new driver’s privilege cards.

By Friday, however, the director heading up the investigation backpedaled regarding the number of known fraud cases, saying some suspicious applications may be legitimate after all.

“As we drill down into these investigations, we have found several that on the face would look suspicious because we have multiple people indicating the same address. In following through on those, we found that those were actually legitimate,” Glen Button, the DMV’s director of enforcement and safety, told Vermont Watchdog.

FDR, the man who studied Mussolini, who birthed the current intrusive state, who started the drug war in earnest, who put Japanese Americans into concentration camps, who extended the Depression years longer than it needed to be and thereby contributed to the genesis of the Second World War, who tried to pack the Supreme Court, who gave away half of Europe to the Soviets at Yalta, and who confiscated the gold – the real wealth – of the American people.

What a guy. And he still has his face on the dime.

There is a reason why my grandmother, a good New York City Irish catholic despised the man. She thought Roosevelt was a hair’s breadth short of being a dictator.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R – Ark.) presented an overview of Iran’s record in targeting the United States and its citizens in an op-ed published today in The Wall Street Journal (Google link). After writing that “Iran has been killing Americans for more than three decades,” Cotton offered some examples.

In 1983 Iran helped finance and direct the bombing of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, killing hundreds of American military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel. Iran has also been implicated in the 1996 Khobar Tower bombings, which killed 19 American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.

More recently and personally for me, Iran has been responsible for the killing and maiming of thousands of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. During my tour in Baghdad leading an infantry platoon, Iran supplied the most advanced, most lethal roadside bombs used against coalition forces. My soldiers and I knew that Iranian-supplied bombs were the one thing our armored vehicles couldn’t withstand. All we could do was hope it wasn’t our day to hit one. My platoon was lucky; too many others were not.

Cotton also referenced Iran’s support for terror, noting that the State Department described it as the “the worst state sponsor of terrorism.”

Cotton made similar remarks yesterday (embedded below) at the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the Nuclear Free Iran Act of 2015.

QOTD: "The job of getting at the truth has never been more difficult. Facets of federal government have isolated themselves from the public they serve. They covet and withhold public information that we as citizens own. They bully and threaten access of journalists who do their jobs, news organizations that publish stories they don't like and whistleblowers who dare to tell the truth.

When I reported on factual contradictions in the Administration's accounts regarding Fast and Furious, pushback included a frenzied campaign with White House officials trying to chill the reporting by calling and emailing my superiors and colleagues, using surrogate bloggers to advance false claims, one White House official got so mad he angrily cussed me out. The Justice Department used its authority with building security to handpick reports allowed to attend a Fast and Furious briefing, refusing to clear me into the public Justice Department building.

Let me emphasize that my reporting was factually indisputable, government officials weren't angry because I was doing my job poorly, they were panicked because I was doing my job well," --Sharyl Attkisson

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Ah, Progressives! You really have to – well, not admire them exactly – but if not admire them then at least grant them a grudging respect for the tenacity of their beliefs.

Unfortunately for them, the Socialist utopia is a Cryptid, which, according to Wikipedia’s serviceable definition, is “a creature whose existence has been suggested but has not been discovered or documented by the scientific community.” Here’s another example of a cryptid: it’s called the Loch Ness Monster. Like the socialist utopia, the Loch Ness Monster requires a lot of magical thinking.

Magical thinking is not wishful thinking. “It sure would be cool if there was a Loch Ness Monster!” That’s wishful thinking.

Magical thinking is the belief that belief can make things actually manifest themselves in the real world. Magical thinking not only dulls reason – it kills reason. Magical thinking is actually form of anti-thinking: belief in something not because of evidence, but in spite of evidence.

For example, people who believe in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster will almost universally claim that it is the last of the Plesiosaurs – giant marine dinosaurs that definitely did exist millions of years ago. Like all dinosaurs, Plesiosaurs are air breathers. So in order to believe in the Loch Ness Monster, you have to believe that an air-breathing creature the size of a city bus lives under the surface of Loch Ness.

Washington, DC (January 29, 2015) –Today, Congressman Steve King (Republican-Iowa) along with 76 cosponsors introduced the National Right to Work Act (H.R. 612) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The one page bill would end Big Labor’s federally-authorized power to force workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Committee, issued the following statement praising the introduction of the bill:

“We’re extremely pleased that Congressman King has introduced the National Right to Work Act, intensifying a growing debate about labor law and worker freedom in our country. This legislation would enshrine the common-sense principle – already enforced in nearly half of U.S. states – that no worker should be compelled to join or pay dues to a union just to get or keep a job.

“In an age of legislative overreach, this is one of the shortest bills ever introduced. A National Right to Work Act does not add a single word to federal law. It simply removes language in the National Labor Relations Act that gives union officials the power to extract dues from nonunion workers as a condition of employment.

“Voluntary association is a quintessential American ideal and the case for Right to Work has always rested on the principles of employee freedom, but passage of a National Right to Work law will also pay economic dividends. Studies demonstrate that workers in Right to Work states enjoy greater private! sector job growth and higher disposable incomes than their counterparts in states without Right to Work protections.

“The Right to Work principle is also popular with the public. Polls consistently show that 80 percent of Americans and union members support the principle of voluntary unionism.

“A National Right to Work Act enshrines worker freedom while providing significant economic benefits for workers. The National Right to Work Committee is mobilizing its 2.8 million members to call on their Congressperson to support the National Right to Work Act.”

Twenty-four states currently have Right to Work protections for workers.

Arms Buildup: A senior weapons developer tells Congress that Beijing's massive defense buildup, emphasizing precision-guided and other advanced weapons, has placed the U.S. and its shrinking military at serious risk.

'I am very concerned about the increasing risk of loss of U.S. military technological superiority," Frank Kendall, deputy undersecretary for acquisition, said Wednesday. "We're at risk, and the situation is getting worse." He was testifying before the House Armed Services Committee at a hearing on the subject of defense and technological change.

The Chinese were paying attention to U.S. military dominance in the early 1990s after we won the arms race and the Cold War, he said. And they watched and analyzed our ability to project overwhelming power in Desert Storm after Iraq invaded Kuwait. "No one observed more carefully the dominance we demonstrated in 1991 than the Chinese," Kendall observed.

China quickly went to work on its own power projection capabilities and what is called asymmetrical warfare, the ability to disrupt an enemy's war plans without necessarily matching them tank for tank or ship for ship. Kendall says he became "alarmed as soon as I started seeing technical intelligence reports on China's modernization programs.

"What I'm seeing," he went on, "is foreign modernization, again particularly China's, in a suite of capabilities that are intended, clearly to me at least, to defeat the American way of doing power projection, (the) American way of warfare when we fight in an expeditionary manner far from the United States."

Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake are liberals representing a conservative state. By their statements and actions, they have proven that they are no longer worthy to be the U.S. Senators from Arizona.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who once described the mainstream media as his political base, has declared war on conservatives and the people of Arizona; reportedly leading a purge of the state’s GOP apparatus to pave the way for an easier reelection bid should he decide to run again in 2016.

In January 2013, Tea Party members and other conservatives managed to get John McCain censured by the Arizona Republican Party, for what they characterized as a liberal record that has been “disastrous and harmful” to the state and nation. It was not even close; the Republican Party of Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous, passed a resolution to censure the senator on a 1,150-to-351 vote. The state GOP party’s censure didn’t even require a recorded vote, it passed by acclamation, meaning by a voice vote.

Now, according to the left-leaning outlet Politico, McCain is getting his revenge.

In Arizona, Republican precinct committeemen elect local party chairmen, who, in turn, determine how state and local GOP funds are spent, which candidates are promoted in an election year, and which political issues are highlighted — all matters of central concern for McCain heading into 2016, when the threat of a primary looms.

Prior to Aug. 26, 2014, when the races for the party offices were held, the vast majority of the 3,925 precinct slots were filled by people McCain’s team considered opponents. Now, after an influx of candidates were recruited by the senator’s allies, around 40 percent of those offices — 1,531 to be exact — will be held by people McCain’s team regards as friendly. They will have the power to vote down hostile Republican chairmen in each of their respective localities.

After securing the support of conservative Sarah Palin, running a campaign as a conservative and gaining reelection in 2010, McCain immediately swerved to the left again, denigrating conservatives and Tea Partiers as “hobbits” and “wacko birds” while championing the Gang of Eight’s comprehensive amnesty legislation in the Senate.

McCain’s junior colleague, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), a member of the Gang of Eight, is also a strong supporter of comprehensive amnesty for illegal aliens.

QOTD: "The last time you filled up your cart at Walmart or checked your balance with your account at Bank of America you were likely making a decision based on the cost benefits and convenience of doing business. You probably weren’t thinking, “I’m supporting the ‘official Hillary Clinton think tank’ today,” but you were.

These companies are just two of many that you’ll likely recognize which were listed last week in the [radical, anit-American leftist group called] Center for American Progress’s (CAP) release of their 2014 corporate donors...

• Why did your company give to the Center for American Progress?
• What issues or values does the Center for American Progress share with your company?
• Will your company continue donating to this partisan/liberal group in 2015?" --Chris Walker

A video uploaded to YouTube appears to show a large Hezbollah Brigades convoy transporting weapons, troops, and armored vehicles to the front to fight the Islamic State.

Several American-made military vehicles, including an M1 Abrams tank, M113 armored personnel carriers, Humvees, and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP), as well as Iranian-made Safir 4x4s and technicals (armed pickup trucks) are in the convoy.

The Hezbollah Brigades is US-designated foreign terrorist organization that has been involved in killing American soldiers in Iraq.

At one point in the video, a transport truck is shown carrying an M1 Abrams tank. The Hezbollah Brigades' flag is flying over the tank and other US-made vehicles. The M1, which is the main battle tank of the US Army, has been sold to and utilized by the Iraqi Army.

The screen shot above marks the first evidence of Iranian-backed militias having M1 tanks at their disposal. It is unclear if the Hezbollah Brigades seized the M1 from an Iraqi Army unit that dissolved in the face of the Islamic State's onslaught, or if the Iraqi military gave the militia the tank. Several Iraqi M1s have been photographed after being destroyed by the Islamic State.

The Hezbollah Brigades, or Kata'ib Hezbollah, receives funding, training, logistics, guidance, and material support from the Qods Force, the external operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The radical militia has joined the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq. In addition, other Iranian-supported Shia militias, such as Asaib al Haq, Badr Organization, and Muqtada al Sadr's Promised Day Brigades have played a prominent role on the battlefield. these militias have played key rolls in securing Amerli, Baiji, and Jurf al Sakhar, and are on the forefront of the fighting in Diyala province.

QOTD: "Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis took a stance Tuesday against the release or transfer of prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

The policy should be that “when we take them, we hold them” until hostilities have ended, Mattis said in response to questions at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

President Obama has renewed his efforts to close Guantanamo by transferring or releasing the remaining 122 prisoners, but Mattis said there was too much risk that those released would return to the battlefield.

...The failure of the White House to develop a “new security architecture” for the Mideast has left the region in constant turmoil and put the U.S. in the position “where our influence is at its lowest point in four decades,” Mattis said." --Richard Sisk

“Iran’s Borders don’t reach only the Shalamja region – the border area between Al-Ahwaz and Iraq – but to the Yemeni capital Sanaa.”

“The Houthis victory in Yemen was not an easy victory. This is not a normal routine event in the region, but this is a historic victory for the Iranian Islamic revolution.”

Zada also took the opportunity to attack the Gulf states and other Arab countries:

“The options of the Gulf states against Iran’s plan were reduced. There is no longer Saddam in Iraq or Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Iran can reach places which Arab leaders never dreamed of them, through the effect it has on the Islamic peoples rebelling against oppression in the Islamic world.”

NEW YORK—As a major winter storm continued its advance toward New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio advised residents Monday to make peace with whatever higher power they call God, for all shall meet their death in the coming tempest.

“The furious hoarfrost bearing down upon us knows neither mercy nor reason, and all within the five boroughs will perish, cowering in their brittle dwellings,” said de Blasio, adding that none would find succor from the gale save those favored by providence to pass quietly in their sleep.

“This shall be a tempest the likes of which has never been glimpsed by man or beast. Clutch your babes close to your breast and take small comfort in knowing that they will howl for but a few hours before death becalms them forever.” De Blasio added that, barring an unexpected intensification in the storm, normal subway and bus service would resume Wednesday.

Police in Denver would like the public’s help locating a suspect in an aggravated robbery and shooting.

According to police, the suspect in the crime has been identified as Zachary Bowyer, 21, who is only known to some people by the name “Baby Obama.”

The robbery occurred on Dec. 22. No other details were released.

Bowyer should be considered armed and dangerous.

Additional Information From The Denver Police Department

Anyone with information is asked to call Denver police at (720) 913-2000. Remain anonymous and call Crime Stoppers at (720) 913-STOP (7867). Text to CRIMES (274637) then title DMCS and enter the message or send an e-mail to metro-denvercrimestoppers.com.

Perhaps we should give Howard Dean a break. He is a serial liar and goes off on unhinged rants based on "facts" with no more connection to reality than Disneyland. His behavior can often only be described as lunatic. So perhaps we should just pity the obviously deranged man, say a prayer for him to be restored to sanity, or at least the proper balance of meds.

Anyway, feeling it necessary to weigh in on the great American film, "American Sniper," Dean said, “There’s a lot of anger in this country, and the people who go see this movie are people who are very angry.” He added, “I bet you if you looked at the cross-section of the tea party and people who see this movie there’s a lot of intersection...”

Now before we react, let's remember that "American Sniper" is a movie about the heroic acts and hardships faced by Chris Kyle, our nation's top-rated sniper. It accurately portrays his anguish about duty to country vs duty to his family. I can guarantee you Howard Dean never suffered such conflicts. Dean, like most Democrats, is only anguished when not getting his way - and collapses in episodes of screaming and temper tantrums when this happens. He's a spoiled, selfish yuppie without the charm.

Actor Gary Sinise, who has done a lot for America's veterans, had a quick response to Dean that was priceless:

Transparency: The administration is said to be hiding for reasons of damage control a report on the soldier we traded five Taliban leaders for. Bowe Bergdahl's lawyers have already been given a charge sheet for desertion.

Both Fox News and now NBC News have reported that Sgt. Bergdahl will be charged with desertion. "I have been told and confirmed by two other sources that his attorney has been given what we call a charge sheet," retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a respected military analyst, told Fox's Bill O'Reilly on Monday. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski quoted senior defense officials on Tuesday as saying charges could be referred within a week.

"A charge sheet is the results of investigation listing out the articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that have been violated," Shaffer e xplained. "The key violation is desertion."

Shaffer, an analyst with the London Center for Policy Research, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who played a key role in the cover-up of administration malfeasance in the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed four Americans, has been laboring to keep this information under wraps as long as possible, perhaps to be included later in one of those Friday data dumps the administration is famous for.

We'd be stunned if any other decision were reached, for the uncontestable fact is that Bergdahl walked away from his combat post in 2009 in a time of war, leaving behind his weapon, his gear and his fellow soldiers. At least six soldiers were reported to have been killed in operations looking for him. He was not out for a walk to relieve stress or clear his head.

QOTD: "After learning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted an invitation to address a joint session of Congress about the need for new sanctions to stop Iran’s nuclear program, the Obama administration went . . . well, nuclear.

One “senior American official” threatened Netanyahu, telling the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that “Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.” Meanwhile a “source close to [Secretary of State John] Kerry” told The Post that the “secretary’s patience is not infinite” and that “playing politics with that relationship could blunt Secretary Kerry’s enthusiasm for being Israel’s primary defender.”

...Using anonymous officials to attack Netanyahu is nothing new. Unnamed officials have called him “chickens---,” “recalcitrant,” “myopic,” “reactionary,” “obtuse,” “blustering,” “pompous,” and “Aspergery” — all to one journalist (Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, who keeps a running list)...

...Obama can afford a bad deal because, as that anonymous official put it, he has a year and a half left to his presidency. The people of Israel, on the other hand, will have to live with the consequences long after Obama is gone." --Marc A. Thiessen

Monday, January 26, 2015

The 2014 Patriots were just the 3rd team in the last 25 years to never have lost a fumble at home! The biggest difference between the Patriots and the other 2 teams who did it was that New England ran between 150 and 200 MORE plays this year than those teams did in the years they had zero home fumbles, making the Patriots stand alone in this unique statistic.

Based on the desire to incorporate full season data (not just home games, as a team theoretically bring “doctored footballs” with them on the road) I performed the following analysis:

I looked at the last 5 years of data (since 2010) and examined TOTAL FUMBLES in all games (as well as fumbles/game) but more importantly, TOTAL OFFENSIVE PLAYS RUN. Thus, we can to determine average PLAYS per FUMBLE, a much more valuable statistic. The results are displayed in the chart below. Keep in mind, this is for all games since 2010, regardless of indoors, outdoors, weather, site, etc. EVERYTHING.

...I actually went back and researched 5 year periods for the entire NFL over the last 25 years. The Patriots ratio of 187 plays to 1 fumble is the BEST of ANY team in the NFL for ANY 5 year span of time over the last 25 years. Not was it just the best, it wasn’t close...

This needs to be investigated and, if it pans out, the Patriots need to have all of their post-2007 wins expunged from the record. This is really no different than roid-ragers like Bonds and McGwire juicing their way into the record books. It's crap.

Ray Kurzweil is a legend in the scientific community, having pioneered the first text-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the CCD flatbed scanner, and the first large-scale voice recognition system. He's received 20 honorary doctorates and was appointed by Larry Page to lead artificial intelligence at Google.

In the new book BOLD by Peter Diamandis, Kurzweil reveals his predictions for the next 25 years. It's worth noting that an equivalent set of predictions, offered 25 years ago in 1990, turned out to be startlingly accurate (a computer would defeat the human chess champion by 1998, PC's would routinely operate over wireless networks by 2010, etc.).

By the late 2010s, glasses will beam images directly onto the retina. Ten terabytes of computing power (roughly the same as the human brain) will cost about $1,000.

By the 2020s, most diseases will go away as nanobots become smarter than current medical technology. Normal human eating can be replaced by nanosystems. The Turing test begins to be passable. Self-driving cars begin to take over the roads, and people won’t be allowed to drive on highways.

By the 2030s, virtual reality will begin to feel 100% real. We will be able to upload our mind / consciousness by the end of the decade.

By the 2040s, non-biological intelligence will be a billion times more capable than biological intelligence (a.k.a. us). Nanotech foglets will be able to make food out of thin air and create any object in physical world at a whim.

By 2045, we will multiply our intelligence a billionfold by linking wirelessly from our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud.

The meta-theme of Kurzweil's predictions is that of exponentiality, extremely rapid growth (e.g., in semiconductor density, computing power, ...) in the overarching capabilities of man's inventions.